Andhra Pradesh High Court to be operational from January 1 at Amaravati

Union Ministry of Law and Justice has notified the constitution of a separate high court for the state of Andhra Pradesh from January 1, 2019, at the state's capital Amaravati.

President of India Ram Nath Kovind signed the notification for the constitution of Andhra Pradesh high court on December 26. Andhra Pradesh High Court will be the 25th high court in the country.

Since the bifurcation of the state in June 2014, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had a common high court at Hyderabad. The Supreme Court had earlier given the green signal for issuing the notification for a separate high court in Andhra Pradesh.

The notification of the Law Ministry reads: "In pursuance of Article 214 of the Constitution and the order issued by the Supreme Court of India and in exercise of powers conferred under Clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 30, sub-section (1) of Section 31 and sub-section (2) of Section 31 of the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act, 2014, the President hereby constitutes a separate High Court for the State of Andhra Pradesh, namely, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, from the 1st day of January, 2019 with the principal seat of such High Court at Amaravati in the State of Andhra Pradesh and the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad shall become the High Court for the State of Telangana."

The Supreme Court had earlier said that there was no embargo for the competent authority to issue a notification bifurcating the high court of Judicature at Hyderabad into the High Court of Telangana and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh respectively and such a notification to be issued by January 1, 2019, so that the two high courts start functioning separately and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh also starts functioning in the new building at the earliest and accordingly.